Regions are ill-prepared for more autonomy: Expert
JAKARTA (JP): Most regional administrations in Indonesia are poorly prepared to accept greater autonomy from the central government, an expert on public administration warns.
Soehardjo, a professor on public administration at the Diponegoro University in Semarang, West Java, puts it down to the poor quality of councilors at regency and mayoralty levels.
The government has announced plans to give greater autonomy to the regions, in particular to the second-level administrations which deal directly with the people.
Soehardjo, who teaches at the university's law school, said that it is up to the members of the local legislative assemblies (DPRD II) to seize the initiative and opportunity presented by the granting of greater autonomy.
Greater autonomy means that more initiatives are expected from these councilors, he said as quoted by the Antara news agency.
Given that these councilors owe their allegiance more to their parties' headquarters in Jakarta, they are unlikely to be able to think independently, he added.
"I don't think the local assemblies are prepared to carry out regional autonomy because their members still put their organizations first before the interest of the region," he said.
Granting autonomy to the regions has long been mandatory but its implementation has been delayed.
The Ministry of Home Affairs plans to begin pilot projects on the matter at 26 second-level administrations (DATI II) during the 1995/96 fiscal year which begins next April 1.
The announcement came during a debate among government officials about the qualifications of the regents needed to carry out the greater regional autonomy.
State Minister of Administrative Reform T.B. Silalahi sparked the debate when he suggested that if the post were to be filled by someone from the military, it should at least be someone of the rank of brigadier general, because the person would have the necessary experience and seniority to push through the autonomy.
Other officials quickly pointed out however that a regent is a political appointment and that one's rank does not count.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, which processes the selection of regents, said while ranks do not carry much weight, it has been a tradition that the post of regents are filled by someone of either colonel or brigadier general ranks if they come from the military or someone of grade IVA if they come from the civil service.
Fray
The Indonesian Democratic Party joined in the fray by pointing out that technically, a regent is elected by the local assemblies so that ranks do not matter at all.
Soehardjo however pointed out that what matters more is not the regent, but the quality of the local assemblies.
The assemblies are the ones which draw up the policies for their respective regions which should be executed by the local administrations, Soehardjo said.
This means that the assembly members must possess certain qualities such as knowing the true potentials of the region that could be exploited in support of development, he added.
Most assembly members, he said, do not have these qualities that if more autonomy is given. They simply would not be able to come up with initiatives, said the senior member of the Central Java chapter of Golkar, the ruling party.
Soehardjo said the political parties have the obligation of fielding truly qualified people, ones who could truly advance the region, as their representatives at the local assemblies.
He also proposed that the government strengthen the personnel of the regional development planning boards (Bappeda) because they are expected to formulate the concepts once the regions are given greater autonomy. (emb)